


I'm Bringing You Home

by Captainrexsbiggestho



Series: Fortunate Sons [5]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 09:10:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16343963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captainrexsbiggestho/pseuds/Captainrexsbiggestho
Summary: It was November in 1965, the wet season had just finished and the war was in full swing, it had been raining solid for the past 6 months, which was hell for most of the troops, the group of brothers didn’t seem phased by it having hailed from tropical islands, but living in tents and foxholes was beginning to take its toll on all of them, especially Rex, who hadn’t gone home since he arrived in ’62 with the advisory team. Fives knew that Rex was suffering with his own resolve, so he did his best to aid the captain whenever he could. Little did he know what the next week would bring him.





	I'm Bringing You Home

It was November in 1965, the wet season had just finished and the war was in full swing, it had been raining solid for the past 6 months, which was hell for most of the troops, the group of brothers didn’t seem phased by it having hailed from tropical islands, but living in tents and foxholes was beginning to take its toll on all of them, especially Rex, who hadn’t gone home since he arrived in ’62 with the advisory team. Fives knew that Rex was suffering with his own resolve, so he did his best to aid the captain whenever he could. Little did he know what the next week would bring him.

Fives awoke early, before the sun, just as he had since joining the army, pulling on his boots and sparking up a smoke, his morning ritual, glancing in the small mirror above his cot he saw how rough he was looking, rubbing his hand against the bristles on his cheeks he decided to forego a shave, its not like anyone cared here anyway. Checking that his pistol was on his hip, he gathered up his rifle before stepping out into the already busy base camp. Walking into the command tent there was a new map pinned up, there was a General there, something big must have been happening, it was General Skywalker, he was known for being down to earth with his troops, both U.S and other aiding forces, Fives saluted as he walked in. “Ah Fives, just the man I wanted to see.” The general clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a grin. “How are you and your Aussie brothers going?”

“Well, I’m from Torres Straight actually, but the rest of the boys are doing fine.” Fives corrected, slightly annoyed at the comment.

“Well that’s good, I need you on the top of your game, because we have just received intel that the N.V.A have prison camps set up, and they’re full of our troops, and some of those boys have been there since this whole thing started a few years ago.” The general explained.

Fives bit back his thoughts, there had been someone close to him go missing years ago, but he couldn’t be sure of what happened to them. “Just give me all the intel you can General, I’ll bring those men home.”

He had a small squad of men, each of them had their faces painted with green and black, the only part of them visible was the whites of their eyes. Fives had the coordinates written on the top of his hand, his map clearly marked, they set out into the night. Four men moved silently through the thick underbrush, each one of them relying on their years of training. But Fives didn’t know if he was prepared to see what he was going to find.

They arrived at the location, it was just before daybreak, the perfect time to attack, the men set up silently, surrounding the complex which consisted mostly of bamboo huts, Fives trained the scope of his rifle on one of the guards, he gave the command to the rest of the squad… simultaneous silenced shots hit their targets with a muffled thwack sound, Fives got up and sprinted to a new position, thwack, another one down, other guards began to noticed their downed comrades, causing a stir in the complex, rapid shots rang out through the jungle, Fives got up swapping for his automatic rifle, revealing his position he lured the fire away from the rest of the squad, stopping for cover he downed two more with precise shots, he saw their faces, they were the enemy but the enemy was no older than Tup or Dogma, he felt like throwing up, he was killing kids, but he had to just grit his teeth and get on with it, this was war and war wasn’t fair on anyone.

The battle didn’t last too much longer, four well trained men had taken the enemy base in less than 15 minutes, and if killing teenagers wasn’t enough for Fives what he saw when he walked into the first hut was enough to make him throw up, the hut was full of young men, of all different nationalities, there were French, Dutch, Americans, Australians, everyone; and they were all horrifically thin, all of them showing signs of being tortured.  After he finished throwing up he and his squad worked their way through the huts, cutting the binds on those broken men, Fives had never seen so much desperation before, one of his squad called for medevac while the others continued searching the complex.

Fives wandered into another building, rifle ready, this one looked to be a command building, he stashed all the maps and enemy intel he could find before turning where a heavy door caught his eye, approaching carefully he listened to whoever was behind the door, someone coughed and they sounded weak, he carefully opened the door finding a young man on the floor, he stopped dead in his tracks when the man looked at him. His left arm was missing at the elbow, as was both of his legs at the shins, one side of his face was scarred as if he had been burnt, but Fives couldn’t mistake those eyes. “Echo?” he said as he knelt by his cousin, Echo and Fives were only cousins, but the pair were inseparable as kids, even so much that they both trained for spec ops together. At the mention of his name Echo’s eyes went wide.

“Fives?” his voice was rough, “Fives tell me that’s you, I’m not dreaming?” Fives let a couple of tears slide down his cheeks.

“It’s me Echo, I just made myself up nice and pretty for you.” He gestured to his camouflaged face, as he resorted to humour, “I’m bringing you home, you hear, you’re safe now.” Picking up Echo should’ve been a challenge for Fives, but Echo was not even half the weight he should’ve been. By the time he had reached the improvised landing pad the medical chopper was there waiting, he helped the medic load and secure Echo onto the stretcher, “I’ll meet you at the army hospital.” He shouted over the thumping of the rotor blades, but Echo was losing consciousness as the medic gave him a shot of morphine. Fives watched as the chopper took off, eyes wide with everything the day had bought. The small squad stood on top of the ridge as they watched the prisoner camp go up in flames, they had torched the place before they left.

Once back at the base camp Fives argued with any superior willing to hear him, only to be turned away, “You don’t seem to understand that we need every able bodied man out there, now you’re not getting leave, and I don’t care if he’s family to you, this is an open conflict and sacrifices must be made.” Said one of the officers no one in particular liked, “you dark ones are always chasing after your hopeless family, you’re all like each other.” Fives would have walked away if he had stopped at the first comment, but he couldn’t stand there and take that, an instant later, that officer had been decked, he should’ve known better than to piss off spec ops. Fives got up and looked down at the now cowering man “Next time I won’t be so nice.” He strode out of the tent, on his way to find Hardcase.

Hardcase was doing some calibrations inside the cockpit of his chopper when Fives found him, Fives sparked up another smoke, he had nearly been through a whole packet stressing out. “Hardcase I need your help.”

The pilot looked up from his work with a smirk “And what did you do this time?”

“Besides decking an officer for being a racist fucker?” Hardcase raised a brow at him.

“You mean that’s not the only thing you’ve done?”

“I found Echo.” Hardcase’s jaw dropped he sat frozen for a moment.

“Well is he alright? Where has be been? Where is he now?” Hardcase rapid fired questions.

“He was taken prisoner by the Vietnamese, he’s badly wounded and I need you to fly me to Saigon, because I can’t get approval for a transport.”

“Done. Get in.” Hardcase grinned at the thought of breaking orders, it wouldn’t be the first or last time he did it. Fives got into the co-pilot’s seat and donned the headset, Hardcase powered up and began to lift off while laughing at the screeching protests from the air controller.

Fives strode into the army hospital, still in his mud-soaked fatigues, sporting 2 days of stubble on his chin. He was quickly pointed in the direction of Echo’s bed, when Fives found him Echo still looked like death warmed up, which was better than when he found him, then he looked like a corpse, at least now there was some colour in his hollow cheeks. Fives dragged a chair over to sit by him.

“Kix, knows I’m here now.” He coughed

Fives laughed “and I bet he kicked your ass.” Echo smiled, something Fives wished he could do sincerely, but he had been in country since ’63 and no one who had been there that long could smile anymore.

“I’m going home Fives.” Echo looked down at where his legs should’ve been “That’s it I’m out of the army”

“Don’t worry about anything, I’ve already gotten onto Jesse, he’s still at home, you’ll be looked after, and I doubt the army will waste a resource like yourself.”

Echo looked up and into Fives eyes, “Fives whatever you do, don’t find yourself in a place like I was in, and please don’t come home in a body bag.”

“It’s ok Echo, I can handle myself.” Fives leaned down and hugged the injured man, “I’ll see you when I get home ok? I’ve got to run before I get court martialled for decking an officer.”

“Of course, you did.” Echo watched as his closest friend disappeared down the hall, he just hoped Fives would make it back.


End file.
